2009 Yonex Atlantic Senior Elite Series

Achievement of Ottawa Players

Dec 18-20, 2009

Moncton, New Brunswick.

The draw

Badminton Canada has released the draws for the Yonex Atlantic Senior Elite Series event to be held December 18th to 20th in Moncton, New Brunswick. This is the next to last event before the 2010 Yonex Canadian National Championships to be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from the 28th to the 30th of January. Ottawa’s RA Badminton Club members are featured prominently in the draws. In Men’s Singles Stephan Wojcikiewicz and Joseph Rogers are seeded first and second and will play Andrew Harding of Nova Scotia and David Murphy of New Brunswick respectively in the first round beginning this Friday. Joseph will be attempting to improve on his runner-up result in last year’s event. In Men’s Doubles, the number one seed, defending champion and regular attendee at the RA Badminton Club , Tommy Mckee will partner with Kevin Li of Toronto to take on New Brunswick’s David Forgie and Matthew Nicolle.

On the women’s side, former RA member Valerie St. Jacques from Montreal will be the third seed and will open against Valerie Deschenes of New Brunswick. In Women’s Doubles Valerie will partner with Florence Lavoie also from Quebec against Ally Caird and Laureen Scott of Prince Edward Island. As reported by Badminton Canada, Valerie and Florence are both coming off impressive performances at the Yonex Welsh International 2009 event in Cardiff Wales. Valerie advanced to both the Quarter-Finals of the Women`s Singles and Doubles. Valerie won her round of 16 match over Carissa Turner of Wales, 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 after Turner had upset the #5 seed in her previous match. St. Jacques & Lavoie had a solid win over Sarah Boyce of England and Alison Marr of Scotland, 21-17, 21-17 to reach the final 8 in the Women's Doubles. Florence won two qualifying rounds in Women’s Single’s to advance to the main round.

Semi-finals

Play commenced on Friday with four and three rounds Men’s and Women’s Singles respectively. Play also started in Mixed Doubles. Stephan Wojcikiewicz and Joseph Rogers of the RA Badminton Club, seeded first and second overall, advanced to the semi-finals with convincing wins against their competition. The fifth seed, Tommy McKee another RA Badminton Club regular was upset in the round of 16 by unseeded Philippe Charron who then lost to the four seed Philippe Gaumond in the quarter finals. Wojcikiewicz defeated Andrew Harding 21-10, 21-10; Maxime Tessier 21-10, 21-10 and eighth seed Pieric Langlais Gagne 21-10, 21-13. He will meet Charron in one semi-final. Rogers defeated Daniel Murphy 21- 12, 21-6; Martin Theriault 21-10, 21-14 and unseeded Charles Pyne 21-13, 21-14. He will meet third seed Alexander Pang in the other semi-final

In Women’s play, former RA member Valerie St. Jacques, seeded third, also advanced to the semi-finals. St. Jacques, who received a bye in the first round, defeated Valerie Deschenes 21-4, 21-8 and Karine Deragon-Jean 21-4, 21-14. St. Jacques will play number two seed Charmaine Reid in one semi while top seed Michelle Li will take on Jocelyn Ko in the other. Ko played a marathon match of one hour and eleven minutes to reach the semis. She defeated St. Jacques Women’s doubles partner Florence Lavoie 16-21, 21-19, 21-17 in the match of the event to-date.

Play continues Saturday the doubles draws (Men’s, Women’s and Mixed) and Men’s and Women’s singles semi-finals. All finals will be played Sunday.

Saturday Results

In the Mixed Doubles semi-finals, the final remaining seed Philippe Charron and Caroline Vezina lost in three sets to Kevin Li and Alex Bruce (21-11, 20-22, 21-17. Joining Li and Bruce in tomorrow’s final will be Francois Bourret and Florence Lavoie who defeated Pieric Langlais Gagne and Roxanne Fraser in straight sets (21-13, 21-11).

In Women’s Singles, former RA member Valerie St. Jacques, ranked 169th in the world, defeated the second seed Charmaine Reid, ranked 54th in the world 21-12, 21-12. In tomorrow’s final St. Jacques will take on number one seed Michelle Li who defeated the fourth seed Jocelynn Ko 21-12, 19-21, 21-18.

Women’s Doubles saw former RA member Valerie St. Jacques and her partner Florence Lavoie each reach their second final with a 21-13, 21-19 victory over the third seeds Charmaine Reid and Tracy Wong. They will face number one seed Michelle Li and Alex Bruce. For both Bruce and Li this will be their second finals as well.

Final Results

Top seed Stephan Wojcikiewicz of the RA Badminton club defeated third seed Alexander Pang 21-14, 21-19 to claim the Men’s Singles title. Likewise top seed Michelle Li defeated the third seed former RA member Valerie St. Jacques 21-15, 21-11 to win Women’s Singles. Li then partnered with Alex Bruce to defeat St. Jacques and Florence Lavoie 21-14, 21-19 to take the Women’s Doubles event.

Early in the day Bruce and partner Kevin Li defeated Francois Bourret and Lavoie in a thrilling three set match 21-19, 17-21, 21-19. In the final match Kevin Li completed the second double win teaming up with RA regular Tommy Mckee to defeat Maxime Belanger and Bourret 21-9, 21-15.

The final Yonex Senior Elite Series event will be held in Toronto on January 8-10 with the Yonex National Championships to be held January 28-30, 2010 in Winnipeg.